The floor space of some retail establishments has grown over the years to the point where it is common to have stores with between 50,000 and 120,000 square feet of floor space. These large retail stores, sometimes called big box stores, include home improvement centers, large department stores and electronic centers. Some of these stores have over 100,000 unique items for sale and this factor along with the large size of the stores will tend to increase the level of frustration a customer experiences as they try to find items they wish to purchase. An increase in the level of customer frustration will lower certain customer metrics such as the average amount purchased per customer visit and the customer satisfaction level. A decrease in these metrics will negatively impact the financial metrics for the retail establishment.
Some items within big box stores can be selected by a customer and transported to a checkout terminal for purchase without the need for assistance from store personnel. Other items require assistance from store personnel before they can be purchased. For example, home improvement centers sell certain types of wire by the foot where a large length of the wire is wound around a spool. Before the wire can be purchased, an employee of the store must be called to remove the desired amount of wire from the spool. In some big box stores, a customer call button is located near the spool of wire and a customer wishing to purchase an amount of wire must first press the button and then wait for an employee to arrive and remove the desired amount of wire. However, this type of system is problematic because employees sometimes do not receive the request generated when the button is pressed or they are busy and cannot respond in a short period of time. The customer has no way of knowing if anybody will be coming to assist them and at some point in time will simply give up waiting and leave. Additionally, call systems of this type have no reliable way for store personnel or store managers to monitor requests for assistance to determine whether the requests are being properly handled and to intervene if necessary to assist the customer.
In addition, the shear volume of items for sale in a big box store makes finding an item difficult and time consuming. A customer may have no idea where an item is located or they may find an item similar to what they need but fail to find the specific item they need. It may be the item is not carried by the store or is located in a different location. In these and other cases, customers will need assistance from store personnel and in some cases the assistance can only be supplied by personnel with specific training or knowledge of the item being sought. In these cases, the customer must stop looking for the item and start looking for a person that can assist them with the search for the item. This process is frustrating for the customer and again lowers customer satisfaction with the shopping experience.